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Week 9 Write Up

11-08-2009, 10:47 PM

And then there were two
The New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts still stand alone atop the NFL as the only two undefeated teams in the league. Both continued their runs by squeaking out a win in tough fashion this week.

New Orleans struggled early against Carolina and the Panthers but for two blown coverages and some bad hands at the goal line looked like beating New Orleans for much of the game. Credit has to go to Drew Brees and the Saints defense who kept their composure through all four quarters and clearly buy into the guys around them and their head coaches plan to keep plugging away. The Saints are clearly the class of the NFC at this point, but the question has to be asked, just how long can their offense overcome such a porous run defense?

Indianapolis continued their roll of dominance during a tough contest with the Houston Texans. Dallas Clarke deserves much of the credit in this win as his 14 catches, many through traffic and in pivotal down and distance situations helped set the tone for the Colts offense. Looking ahead the Colts face New England, Baltimore and Houston over the next three weeks and these games should provide a realistic gauge of just how good this Indianapolis unit is and just might show us a preview of what we’ll see in the playoffs.

Raheem Morris and Josh Freeman
For weeks now Raheem Morris has been under criticism for not only his team’s performance but also his approach to preparing and coaching his team. Questions were raised almost weekly on the team’s decision to draft Josh Freeman in the first round. It wasn’t always efficient and it certainly wasn’t always pretty, but Freeman showed some definite poise, confidence and leadership ability especially when he lead his team downfield for the game winning score late in the fourth quarter.

Raheem Morris might not be the coach to build around for the Buccaneers future, but if Freeman continues down this path he’s began, he’ll certainly be the quarterback to build around.

Success in the NFL is not about passing, it’s about balance
During the offseason many prognosticators made airy statistical references and correlations to success no longer coming from running the ball, but instead through the passing game. It would appear however, that as it always has been for a team to be truly successful they must strike a balance of success between both the ground and aerial methods of moving the ball.

Much of the Saints success has been attributed to the running game and this week when they needed a strong, dominant drive in the fourth quarter much of the success game through Mike Bell and Pierre Thomas. Though the game tying score and field goal came on passes, the framework of the drives were all the running game.

Arizona turned in possibly their game of the season thus far and this was largely on the back of dominant performances from Hightower and Beanie Wells.

Jacksonville, Atlanta and Tennessee all found their rhythm running the ball and used a balanced attack to put points on the board. Sure the success of New England in 07 and the Saints lofty offensive numbers over the past few years have all come through the air, but the last successful franchises in terms of winning super bowls have come through balanced offensive attacks and based on the inability of teams that are one dimensional offensively to win games and win in the playoffs it’s a trend GMs and offensive coaches would do well to keep in mind.

DeAngelo Hall
I always thought DeAngelo Hall was classless back when he was in Altanta and never believed him to be the “shutdown” corner Atlanta fans constantly dribbled about. Lo and behold little over a season after his trade to Oakland he can barely get into the Redskins starting line up and appears more interested in righting imaginary wrongs against him. LaRon Landry’s hit was cheap, late and he deserved the reaction he got from the Atlanta sideline, but Hall had no business being involved. He rushed into the scene, and when the dust cleared he acted like the victim. You would think a guy who got traded for being a dumbass, who then got cut for being useless who then got trucked by Jake Delhomme on a key third down conversion, on a team coming last in their division, where his play has been largely ineffective would be a little more humble about running his mouth, I guess that’s DeAngelo Hall.

It all starts in the trenches
Today we saw two of the NFLs most promising young quarterbacks unable to keep their offense properly in the game through absolutely no fault of their own. Aaron Rogers just might be the best player regardless of position aged 25 or under, but twice in two weeks he’s been unable to stay upright. There are literally no flaws in his game, he’s accurate short, deep, and on intermediate routes, he’s more than sufficiently mobile, definitely tough and without a doubt is the unquestioned leader of his team, but if Green bay are going to keep him alive, let alone playing they have to find a way to protect him.

Aaron Rogers has been sacked 37 times this year, 12 of those sacks coming in just two weeks. In fact, as of writing this (before the Sunday night kick off) Aaron Rogers has been sacked just two less times in two weeks, than Donovan McNabb all year, yet Rogers still has a better quarterback rating. Teams need to build through the trenches, more than a running back, or a dominant set of receivers, offensive lines are key to a quarterback’s development and right now Green bay are failing in that area.

Matt Cassel knows this feeling all too well, after missing the opening game, he’s already the second most sacked quarterback in the NFL. Against Jacksonville he tasted turf three times facing what has been known almost all season as a virtually non-existent pass rush.

Sure the chiefs have issues up and down their line up, but with such a young core of players, they have to focus on protecting their quarterback and must find an answer to opposing pass rushers.

Cassel has shown a lot of promise a year removed from his break out season in New England. No longer is he surrounded by the nfl’s best passing weapons and no longer is his tutelage coming from some of the best coaches in the NFL, but like Rogers he’s progressing, he’s improving and he’s putting his team in position to win games.

The question remains, just how good would either of these players be behind a competent offensive line?

Comment

Both Rodgers and Cassel are good QB's (not equal though) behind terrible offensive lines. But before we go destroying the careers of the guys blocking for them, let's at least acknowledge that both seem to hold the ball longer than they should.

I like both of these QB's a lot, and I'm not trying to bash either one, but both have trouble getting the ball out quickly. Maybe it's a system thing, a receiver things or it's their own fault, but they both do it.

Statistics would disagree, their performances have been pretty similar the last two years.

Failing that, not exactly being Peyton Manning is like saying someone is elusive but not exactly barry sanders. It's not really any kind of a gauge except to say they're not the best in the NFL, probably one of the best ever.

Statistics would disagree, their performances have been pretty similar the last two years.

Failing that, not exactly being Peyton Manning is like saying someone is elusive but not exactly barry sanders. It's not really any kind of a gauge except to say they're not the best in the NFL, probably one of the best ever.

How often has Rodgers come through late in games? How many unnecessary sacks has he taken? His stats don't really accurately show his effectiveness imo. Sure he's a good quarterback, but he's nowhere even close to Peyton Manning's level.

Comment

Does anyone have video of that LaRon Landry hit? And what exactly did Hall do? Someone fill me in plz, didn't watch that game.

He laid out to hit Ryan as he was stepping out of bounds on a scramble, which sent Ryan 10 yards out of bounds on Atlanta's side. Needless to say, the Falcons bench didn't like that, and a crowd gathered around Landry to get in his face. Out of nowhere, MeAngelo comes running in yelling at the Atlanta guys and just goes off. He's going ballistic, and eventually Mike Smith came over to try to get Hall back onto the field. Hall pretty much had to be physically forced by Smith and others.

Landry's shot was cheap, but that's the kind of player he's becoming. DeAngelo has always been...well, many things. ;)

Comment

He laid out to hit Ryan as he was stepping out of bounds on a scramble, which sent Ryan 10 yards out of bounds on Atlanta's side. Needless to say, the Falcons bench didn't like that, and a crowd gathered around Landry to get in his face. Out of nowhere, MeAngelo comes running in yelling at the Atlanta guys and just goes off. He's going ballistic, and eventually Mike Smith came over to try to get Hall back onto the field. Hall pretty much had to be physically forced by Smith and others.

Landry's shot was cheap, but that's the kind of player he's becoming. DeAngelo has always been...well, many things. ;)

Comment

I think the run Defense for the Saints will improve if/when we can get Sedrick Ellis, and Scott Fujita back in the lineup... it won't be amazing but right now we're having to overcompensate for those losses by bringing extra Defenders down into the box.. and I'm still seeing guys take really poor angles towards the ball carrier. To be fair though the past 2 weeks they've faced 2 of the best rushing attacks in the NFL facing Turner, and DeAngelo Williams/Stewart. It's such a nightmare having those backs in your division.

The bigger concern for me as a Saints fan is Offensively we're Turning the ball over way too much. I believe now we have 10 turnovers in the past 3 games? We are extremely fortunate to be able to battle back after committing that many turnovers. At times I love Payton and Brees' aggressive nature but you have to able to put it within the smart context of the game lately Drew Brees has been a little too cavalier, and he's audibling into more aggressive plays, and trying to make some throws into really tight windows. I think overall we have to be a little more patient, and sometimes take what is given.

So in short if we keep turning the football over, and putting the Defense in tough situations it will come back to bite us.

Comment

I think the run Defense for the Saints will improve if/when we can get Sedrick Ellis, and Scott Fujita back in the lineup... it won't be amazing but right now we're having to overcompensate for those losses by bringing extra Defenders down into the box.. and I'm still seeing guys take really poor angles towards the ball carrier. To be fair though the past 2 weeks they've faced 2 of the best rushing attacks in the NFL facing Turner, and DeAngelo Williams/Stewart. It's such a nightmare having those backs in your division.

The bigger concern for me as a Saints fan is Offensively we're Turning the ball over way too much. I believe now we have 10 turnovers in the past 3 games? We are extremely fortunate to be able to battle back after committing that many turnovers. At times I love Payton and Brees' aggressive nature but you have to able to put it within the smart context of the game lately Drew Brees has been a little too cavalier, and he's audibling into more aggressive plays, and trying to make some throws into really tight windows. I think overall we have to be a little more patient, and sometimes take what is given.

So in short if we keep turning the football over, and putting the Defense in tough situations it will come back to bite us.

This is beautiful. It sums up what is going on with the Saints. The defense is missing key pieces in Ellis and Fujita and the Saints offensive turnovers are definitely becoming a consistant presence on the field. Against a better team those turnover could be be devastating.

Statistics would disagree, their performances have been pretty similar the last two years.

Failing that, not exactly being Peyton Manning is like saying someone is elusive but not exactly barry sanders. It's not really any kind of a gauge except to say they're not the best in the NFL, probably one of the best ever.

I was referring to getting rid of the ball quickly, something Manning is known for